polymoog

All its fluid? I don't know. Enough to lose pressure in the transmission so that it first wouldn't lock up the TC, then within a few hundred yards it started hunting all over the place then lost the gears until it was limping along in low gear, with me trying not to revs its nuts off whilst looking for somewhere to pull in. Not aware of the transmission having been serviced, certainly not in the 20K miles I've had it.

Well to cap off a lousy month for LS - after the exhaust and aircon both failing - yesterday it dropped its ATF doing 70 on the dual carriageway. Managed to limp into a lay-by - pool of ATF underneath, lots of smoke (I assume/hope just the fluid on the exhaust) and the whole back end and underneath of the car covered in a film of ATF. It's only done 106K, so I'm feeling pretty aggrieved... There was some swearing. Recovered home and now sat pondering my options and the imminent evisceration of my wallet. Does this sound like a whole new transmission do we think? Any idea on fitting costs if I went that route? Not at Lexus though obviously.

Hi Jim - no I bought from a small dealer in N Tyneside in 2014. An immaculate car at the time with 80K on and a full Lexus history (53 plate). It's on 106K now. In the main it's been reliable barring needing an O2 sensor; also a parking sensor has failed (which annoyingly wipes them all out). Sadly over the last 18 months or so rust has got a hold along the nearside front door above the lower trim panel, and there's now a small bubble on the offside front arch too. Will have to get those tidied once the mechanics are sorted. Current problems aside though it's easily the best car I've ever owned, with none of the impending sense of doom which hung over the E34 540i it replaced.

Interesting. The chap said if it had been well maintained/is running well it should be okay come MoT. I'm a bit wary because my VSV is goosed (from what I can gather it's barely worth sorting out ordinarily, so I haven't yet) and I've no idea if that might have an effect. Other than that minor fault it is well maintained and it certainly runs very well. Has anyone removed their rear cat with no issues...?

Yes this subject again. It's not been a good week what with the front exhaust section going and now a holed aircon pipe back by the fuel tank. My re-gas bloke wants nothing to do with it. Having done a bit of reading here, and with a Lexus bill of £1K+ in mind, it seems the go-to 'solution' is just to blank off the rear pipework and do without aircon in the back. This also means losing the fridge, which I do use. I really don't like the idea of this and I've found one thread elsewhere where a guy made up and fitted his own replacement pipework from the rear a/c unit to the middle of the car, all for less than £50. Has anyone else tried this, or had someone do it for them? I got the impression there's no need to remove the fuel tank or anything daft like that - is that correct? What is it about the job that makes not doing it the preferred option? Thanks. Edit: this is the DIY job I referred to: Link I've just seen another thread on here that says you have to remove the tank to replace the pipes, which would certainly explain not bothering, but I can't see any sign of that being done at the above link.

Well they didn't have a ramp free to inspect it properly when I stopped by this morning but they said they'd done a few before. Seems like they are talking about fabbing a whole new section, which will be £200-£450 depending whether they can re-use the cat or not (or I can delete the cat altogether and take my chances with the emissions test at MOT). Better than the Lexus part at £1050 +fitting, but not quite the £40 patch-up I was hoping for. It's booked in for a proper look in a couple of weeks.

Very much this. After doing a lot of reading I thought I had it cracked with a Kicker Comp 4 ohm DVC wired to give an 8 Ohm load, which people had reported good success with, but it still overloaded the amp leading to cut-outs. Took it straight back out again before it could do any harm. I think the factory sub is 12 ohms, which is not a standard spec in the component speaker world.

I've found a local specialist exhaust repair/fabrication place that'll have a look at it tomorrow. Re. using search, I did try but it seemed to return every thread mentioning 'LS430' along with every thread mentioning 'exhaust', regardless of Lexus model, so picking through the results got old very quickly.

That's really good to know - thanks :)

I did ask if it could be welded and he said it was thin metal and might end up worse. Maybe he just didn't fancy trying. I'll tout it round a few more places for further opinions.

Hi - I've got a blowing exhaust and my local garage says it's a split in the Y just ahead of the under-floor (i.e. rear) cat. I seems the two down-pipes, the Y and the cat are all one part (17410-50310), which Lexus want £1050 for. Hmm. I appreciate you can't see it, but does this type of failure sound repairable? If not, are there any decent sources for the part that won't cost what Lexus are asking? Thanks for any insights...